SCAT COLLECTION: Hikers can assist with carnivore project

Volunteer hikers are needed to help with the Cascade Carnivore Project for the 2014 field season.

Volunteers are needed at Mount Rainier National Park from July 1-Sept. 30.

Jocelyn Atkins, project coordinator, is looking for dedicated hikers to collect carnivore scats from one to four trails. Volunteers will need to commit to a minimum of three hikes in that time frame.

Participants can pick any three dates which they will work. If you want to do them all together, you will need to sign up for three different trails. If you would like to sign up for three well-spaced dates, you can opt for the same trail or different ones.

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No formal training is required. Atkins will send participants supplies and the field protocol.

Hikers will photograph and collect any suspected scat from montane red fox, wolverine, coyote or gray wolf. The scat will go through genetic DNA analysis to investigate the conservation status and connectivity of the montane red fox and the wolverine in the Cascade Range. GPS units and camera will be helpful, but are not required.

If you are interested in assisting the project, select the trail or trails you would like to hike from the list below and contact Atkins at cascadescarnivore@gmail.com with the trail name/names and number of visits (1-4) you intend to make.

If you have sighted a montane red fox or a wolverine, or would like to suggest a trail you think might be a good spot to detect one, the project would like to hear about it.

You can follow the project’s blog at cascadescarnivoreproject.blogspot.com/2014/06/volunteer-opportunity.html.